Student Investigating Sexual Harassment Punished for Insubordination

A year on from reports that a professor sexually assaulted a female student, a fellow student pursuing the case has faced prosecution, while the professor is preparing his return to teaching.

The assault on the student happened at Mazandaran University just a few short weeks before the outbreak of coronavirus and the closure of universities. The female student arrived at the office of the head of the university’s political science department for a meeting, but soon fled the room and later informed university security the professor had physically abused her.

A Student Speaks Out

Recent reports indicate that not only has the professor not been punished to the full extent of the law, but that a male student who knew the abused girl and was pursuing her complaint has now been convicted by the university's disciplinary committee, as well as in court.

A classmate of the student who was abused talked to IranWire about what happened: "The girl first told the story to one of her classmates, the one who has now been reprimanded by the university disciplinary committee. After consulting with him, she went to university security to complain, accompanied by him. After huge efforts by these two students, as well by a number of other students, the university security officials finally admitted that the harassment had taken place."

According to the student IranWire spoke with, prior to the incident, the director of the political science department had repeatedly verbally and physically abused female students and also posted inappropriate messages on their social media accounts.

So when the professor launched a fresh attack on a female student, students at Mazandaran University were angry. A group of them gathered first in the assembly hall and then again outside the office of the head of the university to protest against what had happened and against the delay in the perpetrator being officially held accountable for his crime.

Initially, the board tasked with carrying out an inquiry about the professor’s violations ordered his dismissal. But then the university closed because of the pandemic and a Board of Appeals, chaired by the Dean of the School of Law and Political Science, reduced the initial sentence to a one-year suspension.

"During the university closure due to the coronavirus pandemic, the students were completely unaware of what was happening on this case,” the classmate of the young woman who was assaulted said. “Although we had heard that the initial decision was to completely dismiss this professor and deprive him of his right to teach in universities, a few days ago we were informed that that decision had turned into a one-year suspension from teaching. It means that the process has had practically no effect because the university has been closed for a year, and so the professor has already been out of the university for a year.” This means, she says, the implementation of his so-called punishment is now complete.

She added the abusive professor did not face punishment because he is  a member of the university’s scientific board. "In order to be a member of the scientific board of a national university, in addition to passing the academic selection process, a professor must go through a variety of moral and security tests and prove his commitment to Velayat-e Faqih [the ideological and religious foundation on which the Islamic Republic is based] and his non-inclination toward groups opposed to the Islamic Republic."

Although Iran’s Ministry of Science, Research and Technology sets the conditions on which a university faculty member can be dismissed on ethical grounds, in practice, it never actually gets involved in these procedures. "Usually, complaints about faculty members face many obstacles because they undermine the Ministry of Science’s process of reviewing their qualifications. Of course, there were professors at our university who, despite being members of the scientific board, were severely punished because of political criticisms they made. But the cases of professors accused in moral cases go very slowly."

The student said there had been numerous episodes of sexual harassment carried out by faculty members at Mazandaran University alone, and the fact that few of them have faced punishment proves how immune they are to being held responsible for their immoral behavior. "At this university, we have witnessed numerous cases of online and even physical sexual harassment by professors, but none were dealt with. This summer there was a professor who harassed female students online, using photographs and audio. Before the universities closed [as the coronavirus pandemic emerged], some students complained that a professor in their class had shown 'immoral films'. Again, there was no official response. Over the years, we have seen many instances of teachers sexually harassing female students, and this trend continues."

And now a student trying to help expedite the case has been convicted of a crime, while the perpetrator has been left alone.

"It was during the university closure that we found out that the boy who was pursuing the complaint against the errant professor had been summoned to the disciplinary committee by people in the Faculty of Political Science. The excuse given for his summons was a photo posted on Instagram that was attributed to his account. The disciplinary committee claimed the post contained insults toward the professor. Eventually, the disciplinary committee ruled that the male student should receive a written reprimand, which was inserted into his student file."

Furthermore, the student told us, “the abusive professor also sued the male student in the criminal court, and there are rumors that the court also issued a verdict against the student."

This case bears resemblance to another incident that took place in 2009. In that case, after it was revealed that the deputy head of Zanjan University had sexually assaulted a student, two student activists who had helped make the crime public, Alireza Firouzi and Sorena Hashemi, were expelled from the university and later sentenced to imprisonment. The two students were later forced to leave the country.

Harassed and Abused Women Face Accusations

Complaints of women who are sexually harassed, both on and off campus, face great complexity in the courts of the Islamic Republic.

"Legally, it is very difficult for a court to authenticate rape or sexual harassment," says lawyer Musa Barzin Khalifehloo, who also acts for a  legal adviser for IranWire. "Perhaps this is why many abused women abandon criminal proceedings. It is not clear on what documents the disciplinary committee of Mazandaran University tried to confirm that the student had been sexually harassed by its professor, but from a legal point of view, the main concern of many women who drop their complaints is that they themselves may be accused of having illicit sex. In a case like this, the issue of consent in a sexual relationship, the existence of physical marks of sexual harassment and other documents are very important in proving the crime."

The lawyer also advises all abused women, whether on campus or elsewhere, to take legal action, despite the obstacles they face. "Although it is understandable, some women are concerned about being accused of having an illicit affair. But experience has shown that this rarely happens. Usually, criminal court judges do not rule on illicit relationships, even if the rape or sexual harassment is not proven. Therefore, we always recommend that abused women file a complaint against the perpetrators in criminal courts as soon as possible."